COMPOSER

Adolphe Adam

1803 - 1856

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Adolphe Charles Adam (French: [adɔlf adɑ̃]; 24 July 1803 – 3 May 1856) was a French composer, teacher and music critic. A prolific composer for the theatre, he is best known today for his ballets Giselle (1841) and Le corsaire (1856), his operas Le postillon de Lonjumeau (1836) and Si j'étais roi (1852) and his Christmas carol "Minuit, chrétiens!" (Midnight, Christians, 1847, known in English as "O Holy Night"). Adam was the son of a well-known composer and pianist, but his father did not wish him to pursue a musical career. Adam defied his father, and his many operas and ballets earned him a good living until he lost all his money in 1848 in a disastrous bid to open a new opera house in Paris in competition with the Opéra and Opéra-Comique. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Adolphe Adam is the 123rd most popular composer (down from 104th in 2019), the 506th most popular biography from France (down from 479th in 2019) and the 20th most popular French Composer.

Adolphe Adam is most famous for writing the music for the ballet "Giselle."

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Among COMPOSERS

Among composers, Adolphe Adam ranks 123 out of 1,451. Before him are Carlo Gesualdo, Manuel de Falla, Bohuslav Martinů, Emmerich Kálmán, Giulio Caccini, and Max Bruch. After him are Edgard Varèse, Carl Nielsen, Maurice Jarre, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Girolamo Frescobaldi, and Anton Rubinstein.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1803, Adolphe Adam ranks 8. Before him are Christian Doppler, Prosper Mérimée, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Justus von Liebig, Maria Anna of Savoy, and Edward Bulwer-Lytton. After him are Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Albrecht von Roon, Flora Tristan, Maria Teresa of Savoy, Gottfried Semper, and Fyodor Tyutchev. Among people deceased in 1856, Adolphe Adam ranks 6. Before him are Robert Schumann, Heinrich Heine, Amedeo Avogadro, Max Stirner, and Nikolai Lobachevsky. After him are Paul Delaroche, John Ross, Ivan Paskevich, Étienne Cabet, Ľudovít Štúr, and Florestan I, Prince of Monaco.

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In France

Among people born in France, Adolphe Adam ranks 506 out of 6,770. Before him are Philippe Noiret (1930), Aimery of Cyprus (1172), Roger I of Sicily (1031), Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647), Louise Élisabeth of France (1727), and Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France (1781). After him are Jacques Prévert (1900), William of Rubruck (1220), Étienne de La Boétie (1530), Jean-Baptiste Biot (1774), Carus (230), and Christine Lagarde (1956).

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Among COMPOSERS In France

Among composers born in France, Adolphe Adam ranks 20. Before him are Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1645), Olivier Messiaen (1908), Pierre Boulez (1925), Francis Poulenc (1899), Arthur Honegger (1892), and Léo Delibes (1836). After him are Edgard Varèse (1883), Maurice Jarre (1924), Daniel Auber (1782), Édouard Lalo (1823), Pérotin (1160), and Darius Milhaud (1892).

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